The Spell Unspoken
by Nykademis
Just Another Day at the Office
[reviews]
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Dawn and Faith broke apart, Dawn rolled right Faith rolled left. Both ran for their lives.
Buffy came through the door behind Dario brandishing a steak knife scanning the room quickly for her least favorite person residing in her house.
"Where is she?" Buffy's face settled in a dark frown "She can't hide forever"
"Buffy calm down they were only kissing" Kida had a firm grip on Dario's arm, squeezing until the other mystic flinched she glared at her.
"She was kissing my little sister" Buffy ground out between clenched teeth.
"She's a year older than your little sister" Hakida pointed out calmly.
"Yeah!" Dawn gingerly came back into the room "It's not like she's 'way' older than me"
Buffy began to argue but the front door slamming cut her off. She rushed to the window to see Faith's shadowed form dart into the darkness. Seconds later she gave chase, but not before calling back to her sister "I'm going to rip her lips off and bronze them!"
"That sounds unpleasant" Dario remarked.
"Buffy never said Faith would be alive when she did it" Willow offered behind Dario.
Kida met both unconcerned gazes before chasing after Buffy.
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Faith slid through the oily water, taking a sharp turn on a corner. The other side suddenly blazed with light and heat freezing her in her tracks.
She could hear Buffy splash closer behind her, her brain told her feet to run, but they remained firmly planted in place.
"Oh my god it's burning" Buffy spoke softly, she'd stopped short as she too came around the corner.
Before them stood an apartment complex. All four stories were burning with the angry inferno.
Over the shouts and screams of the firemen and onlookers, both slayers could hear the screams of fear from inside the burning building.
"It's about six people, trapped in the corner of the third floor"
Both slayers turned to find the dark haired mystic behind them. Staring into the flame, or through the flame as near as they could tell "If you're going to go, do it now, before the fire closes in on itself."
"Um..can you...uh...the fire?" Buffy stumbled not quite sure how to ask.
"Yes, but only for a few minutes" Hakida's eyes never left the fire "When I say go, just go. Don't hesitate"
Both slayers nodded silently before meeting each others eyes.
"Go"
Both took off at full speed. Together the leapt through the doorway, ignoring the Firefighter who screamed for them to get away.
Buffy was the first to hit the stairs, Faith quick on her heels, they reached the third floor in record time, but neither stopped to congratulate themselves.
In the far corner of the room sat 4 people. An old woman, who's hacking coughs had her hunched over, trying to breathe, but the smoke filled air was choking her. And three small children, soot faced and terrified looking at them with terrified gazes.
Faith turned her head, taking a deep breath of the clearer air behind them, then rushed when the flames parted for a moment.
Buffy hesitated to throw herself through the flame as Faith had. She stood tense for seconds as no sound energed from the other side of the leaping flames.
'Now!' Hakida's voice rose in Buffy's mind.
A small form came barreling through a shift in the flames, the clear pathway closed quickly behind the boy as Buffy caught him in her arms. She took off like a shot down the stairs, using her agility and leaping down four or five stairs at a time.
When she reached the outside she unceremoniously dumped the boy into the arms of the nearest fireman.
Another moved to take his place when he dropped the hose to carry the boy to safety "How many more?" he called to Buffy's retreating back.
"Two kids and a woman!" she screamed hoping her voice would carry though the roaring sound of the fire and the hose's.
She was up the stairs before she realised it. Faith tossed her another child. The impact nearly made Buffy stumble, but the child coughed for a moment, all the smoky air being expelled from her lungs. She took a deep breath of the less smoke filled air of the stairs.
"B! You gotta take two!" Faith's frightened voice came from the other side of the wall of flame.
"Give her to me!" Buffy called back.
The body of the smalles child zipped towards her, the flame wall closed just before the child reached. Buffy was about to scream in fear for the innocent when the wall suddenly opened all the way, nearly five feet clearing.
The childs mad arc countinued, Buffy caught the still form like a football, cradled beneath her arm. The momentum of the small body caused her to twist, her body turning the opposite way so that she was now facing the stairs.
Faith came through as well, carrying the old woman over her shoulder, both their faces covered in soot, Faith's pant leg burning, slowly consuming the cotton.
Both slayers ran down the stairs, hoping to clear them before the fire that was beneath them reached the doorway. The flames leapt up at them. At the same moment they both sensed the danger that was all too near.
They started leaping down five and six stairs at a time, the breathable air becoming more and more contaminated.
"The fires running out of air to burn B, move you skinny ass!" Faith growled wasting needed breath.
Buffy growled but gathered her strength, Faith readied her muscles as well.
As one they both leapt, the fire shot across the open door, but they knew it would, and had aimed for a window.
Buffy kicked through the hot glass, shattering it everywhich way. Buffy landed on her feet, skidding on the wet sidewalk, she tucked the children to her stomach as she lost her balance and slide on her butt out of harms way. Faith landed more gracefully on her feet, retained her balance and sprinted away just as the backdraft shot out at her hair. Missing by mere inches.
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Kida looked to her mate and smiled. Tears filled her eyes at the selfless gesture Dario had just performed.
The blonde nodded before vanishing back to the slayers home.
"A hero yes?"
Kida spun on her heal to see who'd spoken.
"She is a hero?" the woman repeated. Her dark features were only visible by the flames that leapt not forty feet away from them.
"You would know better than I" Kida kept her expression stoic.
"Many many mistakes my love. I once thought that letting you go was one of them. Now I know it was right. She is free now" the woman nodded "All the dark is gone. And she has found it" the woman turned on her heel and vanished into the night.
"Found what?" Kida mused.
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"Ya'll kids are crazy" the leadman shook his head in amazment at Buffy and Faith "But you saved them"
Both shrugged just wanting to go, but they both needed the know the condition of the last child Buffy carried out.
"Is the kid alright?" Faith stretched her shoulder. The woman she carried was heavier than she looked.
"Which one?" the leadman asked.
"The smallest one, wasn't breathing when I grabbed...him? Atleast I think it was a him" Faith frowned and looked to Buffy.
Buffy shrugged "I caught 'em with the south end facing me"
"It was a girl. They're working on her now" the leadman pointed in the direction of the Ambulance "I don't know who you two are. But I'm glad Sunnydales got ya"
Both girls paused in their retreat to the medical rig.
"Thanks" Buffy smiled and nudged Faith.
"Yeah man. It's cool" Faith blushed, though no one could see it due to the amount of soot on her face.
Hakida stood not to far away looking, with great consideration, at the burning building.
"This isn't right" she muttered shaking her head at the flame ridden complex.
"Life isn't far Kida. Buildings burn all the time" Faith said as she passed her old friend on her way
to the rig.
"No. This fire. It was created..bye magicks" Hakida narrowed her eyes at the flames on the upmost floor.
As suddenly as the backraft came, all but a few flames vanished, leaving the burned out shell of what had once been an apartment complex.
Buffy paused in passing the mystic, as the firemen and assorted EMT's turned their full attention to the sudden end of what had been one of the biggest fire's the small town had ever had.
Buffy frowned "And why couldn't you do that earlier?" she tried brushing off her stained jeans only to have the lower leg turn to ashes.
"I was trying to keep the fire around you away. I didn't know I could see the heart of it if I just looked up a few more floors" Hakida growled watching the sky above the building.
Buffy stood in silence beside her, unsure of what exactly she was looking for.
From the burned out roof of the building, a long sleek shadow emerged. It fly gracefully across the night sky, sliding side to side like a serpent.
"Hey guys, the kid's al-what are we lookin' at" Faith followed both sets of eyes to the sky "Oh"
"What the hell is that?" Buffy spoke to no one in particular.
"Sinfernus" Kida bit her lip, looking down at the wet cement beneath her feet.
"Who-what-us?" Buffy looked at the mystic in confusion.
"Infernus" Faith spoke before Hakida had a chance "A hellish serpant-dragon type demon. Cleanses with the very fires of hell. It promises heaven, then burns all hope"
"Ok you lost me" Buffy looked between the two, slightly peeved at being the only uninformed one.
"It means someone in there was working with a great power. A power stong enough to bring a hellbound demon onto this plane" Hakida backed away from the commotion of the assembled Emergency workers, both slayers followed her.
"Like gemmed heart strong?" Buffy asked finally catching on.
"Gemmed heart with power of their own strong" Hakida clarified.
"Shit" both slayers said in unison.
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30 yards away, the creature that had once been a woman smiled. She slid the violet stone she carried, back beneath her clothes, and into the holster there for that very reason.
"Almost. But what powers are there here?" she wondered aloud.
She searched the crowd a humans with a spectral eye. She could find three glowing figures amongst them. Two glowed a powerful blue, throbbing and sending a hum into her ears.
"Slayer..." she backed away freezing when she realized the aura's were nearly identical "..or two? It is true. The time of two has begun" she shook with dark excitement. Then she turned her attention to the third, who glowed with a mixed light. Every color of the spectrum undulated within it's self. She began to drool, and found herself taking deep un-needed breaths "A Chosen, a true child of 'her'. Alone?" the third vanished from the woman's range of sense before she could properly place her standing.
"Truly, a powerful adversary?" she wondered.
'No. We can defeat.
The creatures control of itself weakened for a moment, combining the tear in it's sanity for mere moments.
'We can defeat.'
She backed further into the night.
'We can...
kill...'
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